Lincoln County’s new memorial to law enforcement stands outside the entrance to the county courthouse in Wiscasset. (Charlotte Boynton photo)
Lincoln County dedicated a memorial Tuesday, Aug. 4 to law enforcement officers who have died in the line of duty.
The Lincoln County Board of Commissioners hosted the dedication ceremony at the site of the memorial, on the grounds of the county courthouse in Wiscasset. The monument stands to the right of the steps to the courthouse’s main entrance.
Mary Trescot, chair of the board of commissioners and a former Lincoln County sheriff’s deputy, opened the ceremony and welcomed those in attendance.
Next, a Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office honor guard placed a wreath at the memorial.
The memorial bears two names: Deputy Reuben Blackman and Detective Sgt. Donald E. Davey.
“We hope there will be no more,” Commissioner William Blodgett said.
Blackman, 53, was a part-time deputy and selectman from Whitefield. He and Deputy William Baker responded to a Somerville farm on May 5, 1933 to investigate a stabbing of one brother by another, according to an Associated Press account at the time.
The deputies planned to pick up Gilmore Bowman, 43, and take him to Wiscasset for questioning. Bowman had been convicted of manslaughter 15 years before after shooting a man to death in a dance hall.
Blackman purposely left his revolver in their automobile and told Baker to wait outside. When he told Bowman he wanted to bring him in for questioning, Bowman asked to get his coat from his bedroom.
Bowman came out of the bedroom with a shotgun and killed Blackman as he stood in the kitchen, smoking a cigar, according to the account. Baker confronted Bowman and, when Bowman took aim at him, fired three times and killed him.
Blackman left a wife, Daisy.
Donald Davey, 37, of Friendship, a 12-year veteran of the sheriff’s office, was responding to a call at about 3 a.m., July 30, 1984. He was driving on Route 1 in Nobleboro, toward Wiscasset, when a tractor-trailer crossed into his lane and ran over his car. The truck driver also died.
The investigator left a wife and two daughters, ages 9 and 5. The bridge across the Sheepscot River between Wiscasset and Edgecomb is named the Donald E. Davey Bridge in his memory.
Many of Davey’s friends, relatives, and co-workers attended the ceremony.
Former Lincoln County Sheriff’s Deputy Jeffrey Sewall responded to the crash.
“Donald Davey represented everything in law enforcement that is good. There is never a day that goes by that I do not think of him,” Sewall said.
Former Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Seth Blodgett, now a detective with the Maine Attorney General’s Office, said Davey was his mentor.
“His death, to a young deputy at the age of 20, was shocking and overwhelming,” Seth Blodgett said.
Former Knox County Sheriff Daniel Davey, who was a Lincoln County sheriff’s deputy at the time of Donald Davey’s death, spoke of his brother’s dedication to law enforcement.
“Even people he arrested would come back and thank him,” Daniel Davey said. “Even after 36 years, I miss him every day. He was a man with integrity, always looking for the good in all people and never saying a bad word about anyone. I know he is looking down on us.”
Donald Davey joined the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office in 1972 and earned many citations during his career.
Donald Davey’s widow, Laurinda Cushman, attended the ceremony and could be seen wiping away tears during the reflections on her late husband.
Donald Davey’s older daughter, Cecily Havener, and her two daughters, Ruth and Grace Havener, attended as well. Cecily Havener also has a 13-year-old son, Donald, named for his grandfather, who was not able to attend.
Lincoln County Sheriff Todd Brackett thanked the commissioners for the monument. “Officers of law enforcement put their lives on the line every day. This memorial is long overdue,” Brackett said.
